After high school I moved to Northern California for about 8 years, and eventually landed in the Seattle, WA area for good in 1996.
I was fortunate to grow up in a Christian home, though I really can't remember a time that I didn't know that there was God...someone besides my parents always looking out for me. My parents began taking me to church at the age of 4 or 5 and I accepted the Lord into my heart and life at the age of 7. My walk has been like that of most people...up and down...good times and bad times...but, always has He been faithful to me.
This was never more apparent than in 1987 when I was nearly killed in a car accident. Coming home from an afternoon of goofing off with my best friend, he lost control of the car and we ended up rolling several times. I was an idiot and didn't have my seatbelt on, so I bounced around inside of the car -- mostly on my face. The car was stopped (on its roof) when a guard rail went through the back window, and I landed in front of that window a split second before it did. The window shattered, cutting my face from the corner of my left eye, over the lid, up the center of my forehead, to the middle of my skull and down to my right ear. Nearly every bone in my face was broken, and my jaws were broken in so many places that when the did the surgery three days later, they had to anchor them to my eye sockets. Oh, and almost immediately my head was swollen to the size of a basketball. But, the blessings began shortly after the car came to a stop. I realized both my friend and I were alive. I had no idea how badly I was hurt, but I could still wiggle my fingers and toes so I figured I hadn't broken my neck or back. The first person to stop was an off-duty Deputy Sheriff who knew what to do, and the first official responder on the scene realized my injuries were serious enough to warrant air lifting to the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital, the top plastic surgeon in the area was there visiting a patient and came to the emergency room to evaluate my injuries (and performed my surgery). I never had a concussion, and no serious lingering effects from my other injuries. Perhaps the best, for me anyway, was that when the car stopped, I heard a "voice" tell me that everything was going to be all right. I never doubted for a second from that point on that I wouldn't be all right. It was a time in my life where I felt closer to God than I ever had to that point. I literally felt His presence with me that day and in the following ones. I've had people ask why I believe in God...this is just one of many instances I can tell them of how He has played a very active role in my life. I'm here for a reason, and I'm having fun finding out what that may be.
I'm single, never married, and as strange as it may seem in today's world, have kept my promise to God that I will wait until I'm married before enjoying "marital relations". I don't know who, or if, God has chosen for me, but He asked that His children wait until marriage to have sex and that was good enough for me. Should I never marry, I am content the He has other plans for me.
As for performing, I learned rather early in life that I really enjoy it, and spent many happy years in school and college doing a lot of acting, musicals, chorales and solo singing. I had minor roles in The Children's Hour, Plaza Suite, My Fair Lady, The Cherry Orchard, and several plays written by friends in college.
In high school, I discovered a love (and talent) for writing, and entertained the dream of one day being a screenwriter. I still love to write, and have even written a full-length, Christian-themed play that was performed at the first church I joined after moving to Washington. One day, when my life is a little less busy, I'll work on adapting that to a book and attempt to get it published.
Like most little girls, I stood in front of my bedroom mirror with the round hair brush, pretending it was a microphone, dreaming that I was singing to thousands while the radio played. As I grew, so did my vocal ability, and I performed with several choirs and chorales through school, and continue to be an active member of the Worship Teams at the churches I've attended. Surprisingly, for most of my life, singing solo absolutely terrified me -- and quite often that nervousness came out in my performance. It was good, but not as good as it should have been. I was always too stressed about making it perfect. Then, in early 2009, God helped me to realize that I was too focused on getting it right (with a lot of pride involved in that), and not focused enough on having fun and letting the Message come through the song. I was determined to take that message to heart, and in my next performance tried not to stress about having it perfect, but enjoying the Worship involved in singing the song. The change was amazing. For really the first time, I was able to Worship as I sang in front of an audience, and the audience was able to Worship right along with me. The nerves are still there, but they no longer control the performance.